Friday, October 20, 2006

School Library Tidbits

I volunteer at my kids' school library now and I'm really enjoying it (You get to scan all the books with that cool grocery store scanner that I've always wanted to play with...) Of course The Man is thrilled that I finally have a job and it's volunteer...LOL

Anyway, I have been reading a lot during the time when there are no classes returning and checking out books and came across some interesting things I didn't know (it would seem even a well-read adult can learn something in an elementary school library...)

On February 23 (the day before the official start of the 1991 Gulf War) the U.S. moved war ships to the Kuwait beaches and Navy SEALS went ashore to plant explosives (all times set for 1:00am). They also set explosives in the water which they triggered with machine guns on their return from the shore. This action threw off the Iraqi command and two divisions were diverted from the front lines to speed east to the beaches of Kuwait city to counter a supposed beach invasion --the next day the Allied ground invasion began.

Also during the Gulf War, the U.S. Army Rangers were training regular Army troops for reconnaissance missions that would be carried out behind enemy lines. In some instances soldiers would be as close as 10 feet from enemy positions, yet remain undetected. As a strong message meant to completely demoralize Iraqi troops the Rangers parachuted into Iraq in broad daylight...just because they could.

Others may have known about stuff like this, but I was a self-absorbed 20 year old during this war --and the only thing I thought about was my boyfriend at the time being called to go (yeah, the Dems did the whole draft scare thing back then too).